I know I dont need to win free tickets to The Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown, but I figured Id play along anyway. Dont know what the hell Im talking about? (We really are giving away a free ticket to the 2014 event!) Just check out either of these pages -> The New Orleans Swing Dance Festival & The Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown and Lindy Showdown for details. Drawing will happen this Friday May 2nd and the winner will be posted to Facebook sometime that day. The drawing is free to enter and there is no risk. So heres my own little entry. OK. Maybe its not so little. I decided to go all the way back to 2004, to a time when jam style contests were still pretty new and even the best dancers didnt know when their phrase was done or when their phrase even started. Michael Faltesek was still telling dancers when to go in. Weve come a long way babies. I love this video for so many reasons. For one thing, I admire each of the dancers in this clip. I especially like that everyones dancing was quite raw. There is no perfection here. And I mean that in the absolute BEST way. Beautiful flaws all over the place. Dancers back then seemed to be less concerned with impeccable lines and perfect stretches in their swing outs and more about putting their heart and souls out on the floor. At least thats how it appeared to me. And thats what we were trying to encourage at Showdown. Its possible I am romanticizing this time a little. The rawness could also be that the overall level of dancing was not as high then as it is now. Feel free to interpret that however you want. Whatever was going on here, to me, was wonderful. Another interesting observation, not specific to this clip necessarily, is that it seems like competitors prepared more for these contests back then. Lately I feel like dancers show up to contests like Showdown and end up just social dancing their way through these battles. Nothing wrong with this per se. Its just a fact that those who WON the Showdowns of the early to mid 2000s won it by preparing in advance, having mini routines ready, throwing well placed air steps, and taking loads of risks. There was a beautiful balance of being prepared in advance but also not being afraid to be a little rough around the edges. So, finally I get to the point of this post. I just rambled on and Im sorry for that. (Sort of.) The clip below is from Showdown 2004. Thats the Wolverines Classic Jazz Orchestra on stage playing White Heat. Minn Vo and Corina Acosta won this year. The other dancers KILLIN IT in this video are Todd Yannacone and Naomi Uyama, Michael Seguin and Robin Nunnally, Stephen Nathaniel Jean and Danielle Eley, Nick Williams and Ria DeBiase. Check out Minn at around 4:29 jumping off the stage and doing what seems to be a summersault over Corinas head. Its kind of hard to see because they are covered by some of the other competitors. Thats not the only impressive thing they do and they are not the only ones who did amazing things in this clip. Its actually really hard for me to pick my favorite couple because I love them all. Fun facts; Todd & Naomi went on to win this division the following year in 2005 and Nick and Ria went on to win this division in 2006. Just goes to show you that hard work, perserverence, planning, and most importantly, SPIRIT, all win big at The Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Apr 2014 04:38:44 +0000